Before the Potters
by Jepplejay8
Summary: Lily, James and all the Marauders are heading back to Hogwarts for their final year, as everything around them is changing so are their lives, their relationships being no exception. Rated T to be safe - mostly for later chapters.
1. A field full of Lillies

She ran down the path of her own creation. Rays of sunlight hit the side of her face illuminating her thick, red hair. Blackjacks clung to the bottom of her dress as the trees over head swayed in rhythm with the heavy white clouds above.

She turned to laugh back at the lumbering figure behind. "Come on, we're going to miss it!" Mischief lit her emerald eyes as she swung around her cheeky grin and carried on running. He paused to catch his breath and looked around him. "Where are we?" he asked. She laughed her melodic song in return. "It's a secret!" she yelled back over her shoulder. He chuckled at her warming whimsical attitude. "Well then where are we going?" He said.

The wind carried her voice back to his ears from farther down the plain. "I don't know." she paused. "I guess that's also a secret!" He broke into a sprint and started to close the gap she had opened between them. She squealed as she saw him coming and dove down into an open patch of daisies; he followed her down, catching his weight with his arms so he was hovering over her.

His eyes found hers and he grinned. "Hello."

She giggled. "Hello."

He lent down and caressed his lips against hers before throwing himself down beside her. He brought himself up on his elbow, a smile playing on his lips. "Well_ this_ is unusual." He murmured. She turned her head to look at him. "What?" she asked curiously. He twirled a lock of her long hair around his finger and looked up at the sky amused. She propped herself up on her hands laid out behind her, creasing her brow in irritation.

"_What?" _she repeated, slight annoyance creeping into her voice. He smirked, entertained by the way he could wind her up so easily. "Nothing" he said. She raised an eyebrow. "It's just -" She raised her dubious brow even higher.

"It's just - this is something new. I've never seen a Lily in the middle of a field of Daisies before." He broke down laughing and she smacked him playfully on the arm. "Oh very clever Potter." She sighed. "Well I suppose I always have been an oddity." He returned his eyes to her "No, you've just never been ordinary." She tittered. "I'm peculiar James." He turned fully onto his side looking straight into her eyes. "You are _not_ peculiar."

"Ah, but I'm not normal." She smiled wagging her finger at him. He traced her outstretched finger with his own, moulding his hand against hers. "You're amazing." He murmured. A blush crept up her pale cheeks, magnified by the sunlight. She turned away from his intense gaze. "In this world I'm nothing." He shook his head and moved his face closer until it was only a fraction away from hers. She searched him with her enigmatic eyes as his breath tickled her nose. He leant forward to kiss her. "In my world, you're everything."


	2. The return of the Messieurs

A sharp pain struck James in the side of the head. He muffled a yell against his pillow and rotated off the side of his bed as a similar yell came from the other side of the room. Gordon Potter stuck his head around the door. His wiry hair stuck up at opposite angles over his impish eyes. He smiled pleasantly. "Morning boys."

Sirius sniffed bewilderedly and yawned "Morning." Gordon raised his eyebrows good naturedly before accioing both his shoes from the room and walking back down the passage. He stopped and turned back over his shoulder as in just remembering the other reason he was up there. "Oh, your mother also sent me to tell you that breakfast is nearly ready and that the train leaves in an hour." James grappled around his bed side table for his glasses, finally finding them next to him on the floor. He scratched his head "S'pose we better get a move on then."

Sirius nodded still looking slightly perplexed and tried to put some jeans over his head, before finally giving up and replacing them with a vest.

Some 15 minutes later they both trooped down the stairs seeming pointedly more awake and mostly put together. The windows were thrown open and a cool breeze filled the room. Mr Potter folded over the Daily prophet he was reading and threw it down onto the table as he saw them coming in. "There you are, thought I might have to come and throw more shoes at you." He winked and picked up his coffee mug. Bree Potter put down the bacon as she directed her wand at the eggs, which were currently screaming. "Stop it. I told you to stop it!" she said sternly. The eggs quietened down as she directed them over to join the rest of the spread already on the table.

She smiled as she caught sight of the two boys and brushed her torrent, reddish hair back out of her eyes. "Mum, you actually cooked!" James said in mock surprise. Mrs Potter clicked her tongue as she passed by his chair "I can cook in my own home you know, even if I don't often take up the privilege. Wise ass." She emanated the same light hearted naughtiness present in her son as she smiled humorously. A house elf came into the room through a door off to the side carrying a new jug of orange juice and a fresh pot of coffee. She bowed as he took away Mr Potters old cup, back in the next second with a new one. Mr Potter started pouring more coffee, so immersed in his eggs that he didn't register what had just happened as Mrs Potter joined the table, summoning a plate for herself. He glanced up at her, before averting his gaze to his coffee cup. His hand hovered above the cup, his expression appearing bemused. "Did I have this cup a minute ago?" James took a chug of orange juice "Yes, yes you did." He said nonchalantly. Sirius choked on his coffee and started hacking it onto the table, while a disoriented Mr Potter stirred his drink and tapped his forehead.

As the clock chimed Mrs Potter stood up "Well then, we'd better be off." She summoned down the waiting luggage from upstairs before turning to her husband "Gordon are you coming, or do you have to be in early today?" she said while taking the coat a house elf was holding out for her. Mr Potter looked over at the boys "I am… coming. It's my Last chance to see my son-" he stopped and looked over at Sirius "I mean sons get on the school train…" He shared a smirk with Bree "…and it may be my last chance to see a certain girl make my cocky son blush." Entertainment played on his lips as he continued "Or then again… it may not be…depending on what may happen this year and all." Sirius bit back a snort of laughter and started convulsing like a moron.

James scowled, "I don't know who or what you are talking about."

Gordon shook his head in amusement "Ah, the James treatment, you do know that at some point you will have to actually admit to your emotions."

A flush crept up James neck and glared at his dad before turning on the spot.

James stood kicking his foot on the flagstones as his three companion's disapparated beside him. A wide berth of smoke and noise hit their ears as they pushed forward into the throng ahead of them. Parents were hugging their kids for longer than usual, presumably because of the various articles on attacks and disappearances that had crept into the mindset of everyone over the summer. James lost his scowl as he turned to face his parents. Mrs Potter caught Sirius's eye, detecting his sudden unease.

"Are your parents coming to see Regulus off?" she asked gently.

Sirius let out a bark of laughter. "I don't think they can survive in sunlight, never mind a place filled with people-"

James cut in, "They're more of the quiet type-"

"Quite vampirish in fact" finished Sirius.

Bree sighed, "Well then I think you should at least contact them-"

Sirius opened his mouth in protest, but she quickly cut him off. "I know, you may not get on well with your family Sirius, but they still are your family and in these times you need to at least try to know what's going on with them."

Sirius agitatedly played a loose bit of thread on his t-shirt. "You're more of a family to me than they could ever be." He muttered.

Bree put her hand against the side of his face "-and we will always be here, as family always is, but I still think you should let them know that you're well." Sirius nodded and creased his brow.

His tone suddenly became caustic. "Look at that, one of them actually stepped out of the cave." His brother and father walked along the station seemingly deep in conversation, each held the expression of deep distaste. Sirius mirrored their expressions, but for obviously different reasons. His father looked up and caught sight of him on the other side of the platform. His nose twitched and he narrowed his dense eyes before he sharply turned is head back towards his younger son. Sirius spat on the ground, as if trying to get the taste of his fathers' appearance out of his mouth. He hugged both Potter parents before striding to an open door on the train and swinging himself and his luggage through it. James scratched his head, agitated. "I better go and get him, before he does something stupid."

His father placed his hands on his shoulders while his mother gently touched his cheek. "We'll be seeing you at Christmas. Mind you bring anyone who wants to come – you know we have plenty of space." Mrs Potter reminded him softly.

James smiled. "Yes mum."

His father shook him gently and ruffled his hair "Remember - don't worry, there's no point to it. We'll be fine and we'll let you know if something isn't."

James inclined his head slightly, his jaw clamped shut; an obvious indication of how he was feeling. The train whistle blew and his parents released him. James walked forward a few paces with his trolley before turning back towards where his parents stood. They waved and smiled. He just caught the words 'I love you' as they turned on the spot and disappeared.

"I love you too." James said quietly, into the empty space that they had just filled, he scuffed his shoes rhythmically against the floor, looking around him.

He continued forward, taking out a snitch from his pocket. The smooth coolness of its armour calmed him down and he unclenched his jaw. He piled his trunk in through an open door and followed in behind it. As he leapt up the short stairs, a glint of red caught the corner of his eye. He turned, looking for its source; he ran his eyes over the right side of the station before finally coming to a rest on the only person he could have seen. Lily Evans stood with her family off to the side. She was talking amiably to her parents while her older sister stood in a defiant stance, staring determinately nothing. He watched, torn between rudeness and entrancement. She wore a plain shirt and jeans, yet she still looked as beautiful as in his dream. He leant out further, holding onto the side bar for support. Petunia suddenly looked up, her intense stare directed straight at him. He lost his balance and went falling face forward onto the platform. He leapt up quickly, pretending as though it hadn't just happened. He turned back to where Lily was standing but she and her family had disappeared.

He revolved around back to the door and came face to face with Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew who were both cackling on the ground. He leant against the side of the door as they both sat up. "Are you finished?" he asked stiffly.

Remus stood up, shook James hand and cleared his throat, "We always knew that you had fallen for Evans, now we've seen the proof." He said grinning. Peter threw himself back down onto the mat again, howling with laughter. A hand tapped him on the back and he swallowed his angry retort as he swung around to see who it was, the glower slid of the side of his face.

Lily stood waiting patiently on the bottom step looking amused. "Can you move?" She asked, while already pushing him partly aside to stow her trunk away. James stood facing her, clever remarks spinning around his head. Before he could choose one she had moved off down the passageway leaving him to be cajoled by his friends. Peter nudged James sniggering, James glared back at him. "Oh shut up.

He stomped off down the passageway, scowling into each compartment. Girls, crowded at the windows watching him go by, some writing interestingly suggestive messages on the glass. James turned back to Remus "I don't suppose you've seen-"

Remus motioned forward to a compartment further ahead "He's in there."

Sirius threw aside the magazine he was reading as they entered the compartment. He grinned leeringly at James "I was just about to come to look for you. We thought you had already gone to start your _head duties_ or something else of greater importance than us mere muggles."

James laughed. "Of greater importance than you my friends? There is nothing."

Sirius smirked and sat up slightly "If anything I think it is safe to say that we all thought our friend Moony would be crowned with the honour of being the head boy" he said happily. James chuckled and sat down.

Peter adjusted himself comfortably in the far corner. "Yes, we all thought it would be the most sophisticated of us all." He chimed in. Remus choked on a piece of liquorice wand and Sirius thumped him on the back. Remus' eyes started streaming and he hacked away even harder. "Sophisticated? My dear Wormtail I do believe you have the wrong man, have you not spent much time with me around the full moon?"

Peter cocked his head in thought and James rung into the conversation. "I seriously thought that they had slipped the badge into the wrong envelope when I got it, I wouldn't have dreamed that I would actually be given the authority to do anything I wanted – really far too much of a risk."

The train lurched out of the station and within minutes all that stood on either side of them was endless fields of countryside. Sirius adjusted his gaze to the compartment door as a small boy with a gaunt face and overly surly looking eyebrows passed by. Sirius's eyes clouded over and he folded his arms. James moved over to the seat opposite him. The compartment became still. James motioned to Remus and he got up, grabbing Peter's arm as he went. "Come on Wormy, let's go and find the lunch trolley."

Wormtail opened his mouth to say something, but Remus had already dragged him outside by the time he had found the words. James got up and slid the door shut. Sirius turned his head back to the window, burning a hole in the scenery outside.

"He's a git. He has nothing on you and if your parents weren't so blinded by darkness they would see it too." James said, relaxing into the seat opposite him. Sirius grunted and turned to face James. His face was dark and a shadow of a dog played across his features.

"I don't need their approval, I've worked my life to be as opposite from them as possible." He gritted his teeth "If my little leech brother wants to be the son of their dreams, well then that's his own funeral."

James nodded keeping his eyes trained on Sirius. Sirius cleared his throat "I just wish that he was different, he's so set on going in what they think is the right way that he doesn't even realise that he's giving his soul as the price to pay."

James picked at some stuffing spilling out from the seat. "You could always try talking to him." He suggested.

Sirius snorted "Yeah I'm sure that'll work out well – Hey little brother, I know I've made my disdain for everything to do with you very clear, but just for now I want you to trust me and to do as I say." Sirius shook his head in grim entertainment "I think not."

James trained his eyes on Sirius, clenching his hands together in thought.

Sirius grinned "Hey Prongs don't think so hard, you're starting to look like Evans."

James rubbed his head. "Padfoot, what's your biggest fear?"

The grin disappeared from Sirius's face and he resumed his defensive stance. "What do you mean?"

James reached up to his hair again, before readjusting his hand to grip his knee. "I know you, you're my best mate. Your severed family ties have never bothered you before, so why now?" he asked.

Sirius wrung his hands; his wall of cynicism seemed to waver a bit. James watched him carefully, waiting.

Sirius looked him in the eye. "A few days ago I got a letter from Regulus. He was gloating, telling me that he was going to be a death eater, glorified above all and so whatever ties we may have still had as brothers he wanted to break." James drew in a quick intake of breath, but still didn't say anything. Sirius gave him a grim smile "He said he didn't want to be associated, or dirtied as he put it by someone who wasn't all for Voldemort's regime." Sirius paused bitterly. "He said that he was going into their fully fledged ranks as soon as he was graduated, to fight against- against-"

"Against us." James finished for him. His hand went back up to his hair again in agitation.

Sirius stared down at the floor. "I should have-"

James stood up and started pacing. "You shouldn't have done anything… you couldn't have done anything. It was his choice and you can't choose somebody else's road for them."

Sirius leant his head against the cool window. "What if I meet him in battle? What if I have to make that decision?"

James stepped forward to put his arm over Sirius's shoulder. "If you have to make that decision, then you can make it then. There's no point worrying now about something which may not ever happen." he whispered.

They hugged each other and Sirius cleared his throat as they quickly broke apart "So anyway…"

James hit him lightly on the side of his head. "Your real brother is right here, not down the hall in the Slytherin compartment, you should know that."

A knock came from the door and they turned around to see a head of red hair peering in at them. She pulled it aside and came in. "Remus isn't here is he?" she asked. Sirius looked around mockingly before climbing up to the luggage rack and shouting "Hey Remus! Remus! Are you in here?" James kept his gaze trained on Lily. "Why?" he asked interestedly, not without a hint of jealousy in his voice. She started walking back down the passageway, talking back over her shoulder "I just wanted to remind him of our head duties – we need to greet the new prefects, set out the rules…well the usual things."

James lurched out after her "Evans!"

She turned. "Yes James?"

James lips twitched slightly. "I'm head boy."

Lily let out a shout of laughter. "Riiiight, sure you are." She teased.

James felt a thrill of electricity run up is body as he stepped closer to her, her laughter running through his ears. "I'm serious."

She faltered at James's smug smile. "But, but you…" she trailed off, seeming to lose track of her thoughts. She seemed to think of something and became un-stumped "Ha-ha, okay, you got me! You really had me going there for a minute Potter."

James grinned. "I'm really not kidding around this time."

Lily scanned the passage as though looking for sense in what was happening just as Remus came stumbling down the passage behind them laden with goods. Lily seemed to discover sense again as she saw him. "Remus, I came down to remind you of our head duties." She said smiling.

Remus peered over his food pile at James who was leaning casually against the wall, with a smug grin plastered on his face.

Remus gave him a baffled glance as he spun around to Lily. "James is head boy – I thought he would have told you that." He said, trying to catch a pumpkin pasty escaping from his bursting arms. Lily turned back to James who arrogantly raised his eyebrows at her. She opened her mouth as if to say something before thinking better of it, she closed it again and walked off in a dazed sort of way. She stopped suddenly as if remembering something and twirled back around. "Err, head duties, we have them…soon." She said.

James nodded trying not to completely break down at her lost expression. It was hard to throw Lily Evans off with anything – the Marauders had tried countless times. Funnily enough now, the one time he wasn't intentionally trying to throw her off, he had actually achieved it. He returned to the compartment chuckling as Sirius looked up from the Dumbledore who was peering out of a chocolate frog card.

"Having fun Prongs?" Sirius asked innocently.

James packed up laughing "Not intentionally, no."

Remus swallowed his bite of pasty and took a swig of butterbeer "Lily looked as though she would have walked out of the train door mistaking it for her compartment if she had the chance – she was so disoriented." He said generally to the compartment.

Sirius nudged James playfully in the ribs "You always have had a way with the ladies…well you did after I gave you all my advice."

James jokingly shoved him away. "-And If I had actually taken that advice to heart, I never would have got a girl to talk to me – never mind actually be something more, like be in a relationship with her." He chortled.

Remus smiled good-naturedly "Not that you have actually have ever wanted to be in a relationship with any girls anyway, you're too untamed for those kind of ties."

James wavered slightly, a strange expression on his face, before he joined in the raucous laughter with the rest of them, his laughter more subdued than theirs. Only Sirius picked it up, knowing him so well and glanced over at him curiously.

James got up, grabbing some food from the pile on his way out. He grinned back in at them before heading down the passageway.

Sirius stuck his head out behind him motioning towards his pocket "The snitch if you please Monsieur Prongs; I cannot help feeling that it would be better for the head boy _not _to be caught out with a stolen object on his first day."

James chucked over the snitch amusedly before walking towards the adjoining carriage into which Lily had just recently disappeared.


	3. Heavier and heavier

James stood outside the compartment door, waiting. For the past ten or so minutes he had been regularly glancing quickly through the screen of glass just in front of him. He ran his hand over his hair for around the thirtieth time and leant slightly forward, unconsciously biting his thumbnail. Lily was curled up on the one side of the compartment steadily reading through a large pack of parchment. Her eyes ran down the current sheet in her hands as she drummed her fingers silently onto the small desk beside her.

The Heads compartment was not that different from every other compartment: it was slightly larger than most and was set out differently, with included desks and extra scattered seats. James pulled back onto the wall. He sighed and gave his fringe one more hurried sweep before standing up straight and turning to march ruggedly into the compartment.

James froze as something cool and smooth pressed roughly against the side of his neck. His hand automatically went into his pocket, grappling for his wand. The pressure on the side of his neck became heavier as a voice spoke out from the shadows behind him.

"Don't even think about it Potter. If you move for your wand, this wand moves across to the base of your jugular."

James clenched his jaw; a vein pulsed in his neck in anger as he twisted, trying to look at his attacker. A second shadow joined James' on the passageway floor and Severus Snape came into James line of view. A hateful sneer played on Snape's lips. He moved to whisper in James's ear and James started to struggle harder against his tightening grip.

"Isn't this something new: the amazing Potter, the infamous tormenter… now the tormented." He whispered scathingly.

His liquid black eyes fiercely bored deep into James's dilated pupils, black on Brown. James spat forcefully into his face.

"Ha! Like it would have been this way if you weren't such a coward, as if you had actually had the courage to approach in my line of view, you would have still come out on top."

A loud bang echoed from the darkness of the passageway ahead and Snape looked up. James rolled out from under Snape's wand and delved for his own, training it on Snape's face. Snape sized up the situation, his mind calculating behind his cold eyes.

James's chest heaved as he surveyed Snape with the deepest contempt, yet also humour etched onto his face. "Like I was saying… in this fight, I'll always come out on top."

Blazing heat grazed the side of James cheek and he lunged sideways, narrowly avoiding the quick succession of spells sent at him. He sent a range of spells back at Snape from his position on the floor; Snape raged as one found its mark and lifted his wand again.

"Protego!"

James glared confusedly at Snape, who had his gaze trained on someone off to the side. James rolled over and saw Lily standing in the open door of her compartment. Her face was livid. Her hair had partly escaped from her loose bun, and hung down past her face.

"Stop it!" she cried.

James jumped up and brushed himself down, keeping his focus on Snape. Lily swept her hair impatiently out of her eyes and silently put up her hands in a calming manner and held the silence for a moment, looking at each of the boys in turn.

"Why can't you two just get on?" She asked tiredly.

Snape thrust his wand back into his cloak and turned on his heel, marching away from them. James kept a tight hold on his wand until Snape had walked out of sight, before cautiously returning his wand to his pocket. He looked around and found that Lily had disappeared.

He walked over to the compartment and sat down in the seat closest to the door. Lily had returned to reading her notes, only in a more hurried and distracted fashion than before. He coughed and she raised her head to give him a death stare before returning to the pages. The pack seemed familiar. He shuffled down his seat until he was directly in front of Lily. He read the heading of the page upside down.

"_Be a team leader, not a team mate_."

Underneath it was a bulleted list of various instructions relating to the title. He ran his hand down his stubbly cheek, thinking back. His thoughts didn't really amount to much and curiosity taking hold, reached out his hand to catch the front page.

"Why is this so familiar? I just can't-" he broke off as Lily impatiently hit his hand away and flipped back the pages of parchment to reveal the cover title: _"HOW TO BE A HEAD."_

"Oh that's why", mused James as he relaxed back into the seat behind him, propping his head up on his hands. He yawned and rotated his head to the window, watching the scenery pass by. Lily tapped her foot irritably against the floor, while raptly watching James over the top of her parchment. A smile curled up onto James's face, aware of her attention and carried on looking out of the window, purposefully ignoring her efforts of trying to stare holes into the side of his face.

"Yes Evans?" James asked inquiringly. Lily carried on tapping her foot impatiently, while constantly filling the air with loud 'Harrumphs'. James got up and bent over Lily, placing his hands solidly on her shoulders.

"It would be of great help if you could actually tell me why you are so pissed off, and then we can resolve this a lot faster." He said placing more of his weight onto Lily, resulting in her sliding down her chair a few inches. She tried to struggle away from his strong grip for a few minutes, before finally accepting the impossibility of getting free while separated from her wand which was lying on the far side of the compartment in her coat pocket. James smirked and pushed down harder on her shoulders.

"Until I find out what's wrong Evans, you are not going anywhere, so the sooner you tell me what I did to rub you up the wrong way, the sooner you can once again be free of my face hanging over you." He said patronisingly.

Lily glared pointedly at a point just below his eyes. "You're terrible." She snarled in agitation.

James laughed, itching his chin against his shirt. "Yes I am, but I often think that that is more frequently a good thing than not."

Lily sighed. "You can't go for more than an hour in the vicinity of a weaker victim before you give in to your hexing temptations. It's despicable." She said stonily.

James released her shoulders and fell back into the chair behind him. He grabbed an elongated toffee from a small pile across his seat and interestedly took a bite.

"That-" James said pointing the remaining toffee in his hand at her. "-Is not true."

Lily let out a noise of exasperation and moved to pick up the rest of the toffees before James took anymore.

"_Please_. As soon as you see Severus you have to attack him, or humiliate him, or…do some other equally awful thing to him." She finished in frustration.

She stowed away the toffees as James shoved the last bite of his into his mouth and crumpled up the wrapper.

"I will never touch another person – smaller or larger than me, unless they provoke me first. I stopped hexing everybody for the fun of it two years ago. Snivellus just happens to be a special case."

Lily crossed her arms, her expression now more apprehensive than angry. "Yes, but in the passageway-"

"In the passageway I was with Snape - who, like I said, is a special case - and anyway, I only hexed him because he hexed me first – it was completely within my rules." He said matter of factly.

Lily raised her eyebrows "Severus attacked you." She stated blandly. "I'm sure. Like that has happened _so_ often in the past." She added sceptically.

James folded his arms. "Yes it has actually."

Lily got up and crossed her arms. "Like when?" she asked, slightly inclining her head. James peered down at her, at about a foot taller than Lily; his shadow cast from the incoming sun completely covered her. James also crossed his arms and stepped closer, so that only a slight gap remained between them.

"Like about five minutes ago… it's odd, I could have sworn you were there – I guess it must have been a hallucination. Although that shield charm seemed quite real…" He trailed off looking down at Lily whose lip was twitching slightly.

He bent down further so that their noses were nearly touching. "Now, have we resolved the matter? You're not going to be tapping your foot annoyingly against the floor and glaring at me anymore?" he asked, cocking his head to the side innocently.

Lily glared at him, not moving. It was an infamous Lily – James stand off. She raised her right eyebrow and swung around in quick succession. Her hair hit James on the side of the face and he was blasted by a smell that he couldn't quite identify, but liked a lot. Lily marched over to a seat and sat down, taking out a quill and scribbling something down in the margin of a piece of parchment. She glanced up at James who was still in the position she left him, swaying slightly.

"James?"

James snapped back to reality and shook his head to clear it. "Hmmm?"

"We need to go over what we're going to say to the prefects." Lily said, still focusing on the notes that she was writing. James stretched and fell back limply into a random pouffe chair. He studied it while getting comfortable, "I like this chair, I wonder if I could get one of these for my room…?" he questioned wonderingly.

Lily sat watching him interestedly, but her annoyance with him got the better of her.

"James!" she said again, "Prefects. Duties. We need to discuss this."

James continued studying his chair face pressed against the soft material "Man, this even smells good!" he exclaimed amazed.

Lily looked at him expectantly as he ran his tongue over his teeth.

"Yes, prefects, I know… we can just tell them what they're told every year, you know not to piss off Peeves, not to abuse their power, respect the rules, blah, blah, blah. See, easy."

Lily put down the quill and started drumming her fingers on the wood of the desk. "We need some kind of structure James."

James lay back against his pouffe which seemed to stretch and enlarge to support his entire body. "You don't need structure for everything Evans, live a little. I dare you to." He scoffed.

Lily threw him a dirty look. "I live more than you would dare to live Potter. Don't flatter yourself into thinking that you're the only daredevil in this room."

James grinned and tried to get up off the pouffe. "Okay fine, Miss Daredevil, if it is so incredibly important to have structure, you can start off by talking through each of your points-"

Lily made to interrupt, but James cut her off with a look. "Don't say that you don't have any points; I have been watching you scribble away on that piece of parchment for a good half hour… back to what I was saying: you can talk through each of the points, I'll ad lib through them and then if you eventually find that you've run out of things to say then we'll say that the meetings over – simple."

He clapped his hands together as he finally managed to pull himself up out of the pouffe.

"Right, when are they getting here?"

Lily smiled subtly at James enthusiasm. "Around two, I told them." She answered, reading over her notes and placing her quill back into the inkpot. There was silence while each of them pretended to be interested in one thing or another to avoid talking. James broke the silence as he reached up onto the bag rack to check something. "I see you got over your initial shock form earlier on." He stated, a smirk coming through his voice.

Lily furrowed her brow in confusion, distractedly played with a stray piece of hair. She vaguely remembered their conversation earlier on the train and realised that that was what he was referring to.

"Oh, that… it actually made sense – after the initial shock I could kind of understand the logic behind Dumbledore's choice…"

James brought his mouth up in a half smile "oh?" he murmured, his head still amongst the various articles on the bag rack.

Lily went on distractedly "Mmm, I mean you make a good leader - well, besides from some organisational issues and the whole arrogant toerag thing - but otherwise you're mostly a compelling person. Charismatic, charming, popular, kind – well sometimes, protective, likeable, handsome…" she trailed off absent-mindedly, focusing on the scenery flashing by and twirling the same lock of her hair around her fingers.

James stopped rummaging and glanced back over his shoulder at her like she was going mad. He jumped down onto the compartment floor and made his way over to Lily. He moved the desk off to the side and bent down in front of her.

"Lily." The sound of her name made her refocus her attention on James.

"Yes?"

James put his hands on her knees and rubbed small circles into them. "Are you… okay?" he asked slowly.

Lily put out her hand and brushed him lightly with the back of her hand before withdrawing it. "Yes James I'm fine, why?" she asked distantly.

James smiled, covering his increasing anxiety; he couldn't let her see it: if she did, she would know that he actually cared.

"It was just as you started listing all my good attributes, I started to become suspicious… but by the time you said I was handsome, I started to believe that you were actually an intruder, dosed up on polyjuice potion."

Lily grinned and shoved him playfully "Stop."

James rolled back on his heels before clambering up onto the seat next to Lily. "No, I'm serious. I was about to start searching the train to make sure someone hadn't stuffed you in a cupboard somewhere while they were out busy impersonating you." He grinned over at her.

She giggled softly, shaking her head as she peeked up at him through her thick hair. James chuckled along with her and reached out to sweep back a couple of random curls from her face. His hand lingered on her cheek, thoughts travelling back to the dream he had woken from earlier in the day. He leant in closer, his breath warming the tip of her nose.

Lily turned her face to the side and removed herself from James who had unconsciously wrapped his empty arm around her. She ran her eyes around the room, her mouth partly open, searching for something to say.

"I wanted to make sure you had snapped back to yourself after the whole…compliment episode." He cut across her cautiously before she could find the words. James swallowed and seemed to recover himself as he grinned over at her. "…And I wanted to see how close I could get before you started freaking out… which as it turns out is pretty close. You just might have a daredevil in you after all Evans."

Lily touched on every aspect of the compartment before settling on James face and smiling back somewhat unconvincingly. "You see, I told you so and to think that I was about to pull out my wand, thinking that_ you_ were the imposter."

James snorted "'Believe me Evans when I say that I doubt any guy would go to the lengths of impersonation just to get close to you."

"Ho - ho, so says the guy who barely a minute ago was staring down my throat."

James let out an impatient breath. "Don't flatter yourself, it was an experiment, remember?"

Lily smiled slightly. "Right… an experiment."

She pretended to examine an empty wrapper on the floor before looking straight over at James, from her bent down position. "Were you watching me on the platform?" She asked casually.

James was noticeably thrown off guard and turned sharply to look at her. "No. Why would I be watching you? Really you're not that interesting - I assure you that I had better things to do at the time."

Lily nodded, a secretive smile playing amusingly on her face.

James studied her. "Why?" he asked.

Lily shrugged nonchalantly, scrunching up the wrapper and searching around her for something else. "No reason. Petunia just happened to mention in passing something about one of my freaky messy haired friends staring over at us, and you were the only one I could think of fitting the description."

"Freak friends?" questioned James, a hurt edge to his voice.

"It's how she deals with the whole not being a witch thing; if she can't be a part of our world, she'll make it out as the most unattractive world to be in."

Lily caught James' irked expression as she got up from the floor, clutching a chocolate frog card. "Don't take it personally, it's just who she is, how she deals. There's no use getting angry about it – believe me I learnt it a long time ago." She said lightly.

James ruffled his hair roughly, his jaw starting to clench again.

"I got Nicholas Flammel, he hasn't be seen on a chocolate frog card in ages." Lily said, smiling, and threw the serene figure on top of a pile of various odd objects alongside her shoulder bag.

James ran his hand down his thigh agitatedly. "Don't your parents try to say anything to your sister?" he asked, avoiding looking at her.

She tied her hair back in a ponytail haphazardly, running her hand over it to smooth out the bumps. "Of course, but there's only so much that they can say, or do… I mean, she's also their daughter and if anything, it's my doing for somehow being a witch in the first place."

James stood up looking scandalised. "You shouldn't say that. You can't use your talents to cover her flaws. You should be proud of being a witch and shouldn't try to make yourself anything less just because your sister is insecure at the fact that she can never be one and has to settle instead for a 'normal' life."

"I don't – Of course I'm proud – insulting my – don't you try to understand my family dynamics Potter, you don't anything about me, never mind the rest of my family!"

"I'm not -"

"Don't even say it Potter."

"I didn't mean-"

"Don't!"

Colour rose up into James face, his eyes blacking over, confused at her sharp change of demeanour. "Listen to me! For the sake of Merlin, no wonder I hardly speak to you – you're so frickin' hard to talk to! I made one comment on your sister and you flew off the handle completely like it was an intentional attack on you!" he snarled heavily, tugging impatiently at his hair.

Lily's face became dangerously calm. "Well next time keep your comments to yourself."

James snorted. "Believe me I don't need much persuasion on the topic."

They each stood brooding opposite each other. Lily closed her eyes, calming herself.

"Look, I'm sorry for having a go at you like that, but I already have enough to deal with – without my family problems being brought up."

James curtly nodded his head, his mood softening and unfroze from his tense stance. "Look at us – not even a few hours into our new positions and we're already at each others throats." He scoffed.

Lily smiled slightly, rubbing her neck ruefully. "Well we never have been able to keep away from each other – unfortunately it's never for the like of each others company; more for the promise of the fight that comes with it."

He bent down and ran his fingers against the grain of the carpet. "Yup, we're each other's punching bag… throwing words as blows instead of our fists. We save the anger we accumulate from our lives until we find a chance to hack it away on one another." He scratched his nose. "This has been one heavy train ride; I won't be able to wait to get off if things keep on happening at this rate."

Lily looked at him quizzically and he proceeded to tell her about what had happened earlier on the train – only making a vague reference to what he and Sirius were talking about. The sun had dropped lower in the sky as their conversation carried them into the afternoon and Lily looked up with a start when a knock came from the door. She had become so engrossed in what they were talking about that she had completely forgotten about the meeting. Prefects from mixed houses stood together, peering in at them through the glass. They were all in their robes, and it only dawned on her that she wasn't in hers when she realised that she was still wearing pants. She hurriedly tidied aside some of her notes and other random articles lying about the carriage, cheeks a flustered pink as she made her way across to greet the prefects. James lounged back as they trooped in, grinning confidently at the new recruits. After a few raised eyebrows courtesy of the group, James stood up. "Sorry we're not in our robes guys. We got so caught up in discussing things that we didn't see the time."

The girls in the compartment threw dirty glances over at Lily while emitting disgruntled vibes. The picture of Lily and James talking so intensely that they forgot everything around them didn't appear to sit well with them. James laughed lightly into the room at large. "Don't worry girls, it was only talk about some head business."

The girls visibly relaxed and once again became as amiable towards Lily as though she had proposed giving them a bucket of galleons each.

Lily could have sworn she saw the shadow of a wink at her from James, but thought better of it as he draped his arms around the girls near him, flirting as he led the way into the room. She reasoned that it must have been a trick of the light.

"Okay girls…and boys, let's get down to business." James announced, rubbing his hands together. The girls around him simpered and pushed their chests out a little further than was natural. Lily rolled her eyes.

"Oh for goodness' sake," she muttered under her breath. She was surprised that the other boys in the room hadn't shown hostility at the way the girls fawned over James, but a second look revealed that their mouths were also hanging open in puppy dog admiration: they were as happy to be in his presence as the girls were.

James smiled affably as he addressed the prefects. "Welcome everyone to the New Year. As your new heads we feel it is our duty to convey a few details of your new position to all you wonderful people." He sprang up from his crowd of admirers and looked expectantly at Lily, who had lost concentration somewhere between the other girls flirting and flattery and was immersed in braiding her hair. She tied a hair tie around the loose end of it and turned to meet the sea of faces upturned towards her.

"Let's get started then shall we. So after seeing what the other prefects have done over the years I'm sure you have a general knowledge about your position, but I – err, we just wanted to go over some points that were raised at the end of last year by the past prefects and teachers and we also want to quickly run over the general fundamentals that you may not have picked up."

James smiled encouragingly and she brought herself up to her full height.

"Firstly I wanted to remind you of your duties, which I have a list of here. You can't forget them and if you can't be on duty then always find another prefect to take your place. Secondly I wanted to discuss your prefect privileges. As you know you now get your own bathroom which can only be accessed through a password."

The prefects murmured excitedly. "Yes, it's great, but I want to emphasize the fact that it is a luxury to be able to use it – not a right. Last year some prefects decided to ignore this fact and gave the password to all their friends, which eventually wound up to the bathroom always being occupied by none-prefects and the actual prefects could never get in to make use of it. So please for your sake keep the password to yourselves."

James sat up a little, "Yeah and can I add that if you are stupid enough to actually allow that to happen, do not come knocking on our door, because there is no way you are using our bathroom… unless I invite you to be in there with me in which case-"

Lily smirked humorously "- In which case be sure to do so when I am out, and to use his towel because I prefer mine dry and free of somebody else's body scum."

Lily had forgotten about their shared quarters, which now brought up was partly plaguing her mind. James seemed to be contemplating the same thing as he locked eyes with Lily before looking hurriedly back to the crowd at large.

One of the prefects coughed and Lily tried to remember what she had wanted to say next. "Err…your position…" something in what she said jogged her mind and she continued confidently. "Your position as prefect should not be used to your advantage over the rules; you are still students and so the rules apply to you as well and when it comes to enforcing the rules we need to actually stick to the rules that actually exist." A few people gave her a puzzled look.

"I'm referring to the giving out of detentions and such to your mates, or rather your enemies. You have not been placed in a higher position to be able to hand out punishments to get revenge on people, and if you can contemplate doing that do that then you're being a coward – by hiding behind your power and relying on it to solve your issues with everyone for you."

James looked impressed but didn't interrupt. He had caught on to the fact that Lily lost her train of thought whenever there were unannounced interruptions. Lily swung her braid over her shoulder and confidently continued.

"Finally, Professor McGonagall has asked me to stress to you that Peeves has never showed any inclination to obey rules or authority, so if you see him up to something bad then tell one of the teachers…or the Bloody Baron because if you try to stop him chances are you'll get a first hand experience of whatever he's planning to do, or already doing."

James put his hands into his pocket. "So that's it?" he half asked, half stated to Lily, his focus on the prefects. Lily nodded "Yes, that's it. Except for passwords and duties, oh and any questions you may have – I nearly forgot. Just come over to me to get everything and then you're free to go and wreak havoc on the rest of the train."

The prefects laughed and James looked over at her admiringly while she dished out passwords to everybody and answered their various questions. He propped his shoulder against the wall, changing his mouth into different positions of entertainment. As the last person left with a last look over their shoulder at James, Lily spun around. "Well that's that" she said relieved.

"You know, you're a good leader Evans. You know how to keep an audience's focus and have patience – a good leadership attribute."

Lily leant her hand on one of the desks "Is that a compliment?" she asked. James pushed himself back off the wall and stood before her once more.

"It may have been." He replied secretly. "You'll never know."

Lily chuckled, "I can live with that. In the mean time we need to get dressed. We'll be pulling into the station soon."

She strolled over to the luggage rack and started pulling out her robes. James found his voice after staring openly at her movements for a while.

"Yeah, I better go do the same." He said, and turned to leave.

"Don't go getting into anymore fights." Lily called after him teasingly. James chuckled and waved a hand behind him to show that he heard as he walked out, brushing past Mary McDonald as she walked in, throwing him curious looks.


End file.
